31 posts · 29,686 views
Examines pseudoscience and quackery in pharmacies and pharmacy practice
Scott
31 posts
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- August 1, 2011
- 08:18 AM
- 1,084 views
Salt: More confirmation bias for your preferred narrative
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Judging by the recent press reports, the latest Cochrane review reveals that everything we’ve been told about eating salt, and cardiovascular disease, is wrong: The New York Times: Nostrums: Cutting Salt Has Little Effect on Heart Risk The Daily Mail: Cutting back on salt ‘does not make you healthier’ (despite nanny state warnings) Scientific American: [...]... Read more »
Taylor RS, Ashton KE, Moxham T, Hooper L, & Ebrahim S. (2011) Reduced dietary salt for the prevention of cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (cochrane review). American journal of hypertension, 24(8), 843-53. PMID: 21731062
- July 10, 2011
- 05:38 PM
- 1,151 views
Vaccine Confidence: Attitudes and Actions
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Few groups are more hazardous to public health than the anti-vaccine movement — because there’s a body count affiliated with their actions. When vaccination rates drop, communicable diseases re-emerge, and people suffer. While anti-vaccine sentiment will probably persist as long as vaccines are around, we’re fortunate that vaccination rates, on balance, remain very high. In [...]... Read more »
Kennedy A, Lavail K, Nowak G, Basket M, & Landry S. (2011) Confidence about vaccines in the United States: understanding parents' perceptions. Health affairs (Project Hope), 30(6), 1151-9. PMID: 21653969
- June 23, 2011
- 08:13 PM
- 999 views
Making sense of biomarker research
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Everything you know may be wrong. Well, not really, but reading the research of John Ioannidis does make you wonder. His work, concentrated on research about research, is popular among those that want to improve the way we deliver medicine. And that’s because he’s focused on improving the way evidence is brought to bear on [...]... Read more »
Ioannidis JP, & Panagiotou OA. (2011) Comparison of effect sizes associated with biomarkers reported in highly cited individual articles and in subsequent meta-analyses. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 305(21), 2200-10. PMID: 21632484
- June 9, 2011
- 06:49 PM
- 591 views
Placebos as Medicine: The Ethics of Homeopathy
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Is it ever ethical to provide a placebo treatment? What about when that placebo is homeopathy? Last month at Science-Based Medicine I blogged about the frequency of placebo prescribing by physicians. I admitted my personal discomfort, stating I’d refuse to dispense any prescription that would require me to deceive the patient. The discussion continued in [...]... Read more »
Smith K. (2011) AGAINST HOMEOPATHY - A UTILITARIAN PERSPECTIVE. Bioethics. PMID: 21320146
- May 14, 2011
- 02:20 PM
- 1,054 views
Counting the Placebo Prescriptions
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
How frequently are placebos prescribed and dispensed? I blogged earlier this week about Tom Blackwell’s recent article in the National Post on the prevalence of placebo prescriptions. The authors of the paper Blackwell summarized suggest that one in five physicians actively use placebos. Even if they’re being used sporadically, that’s a lot more use than [...]... Read more »
Fässler, M., Meissner, K., Schneider, A., & Linde, K. (2010) Frequency and circumstances of placebo use in clinical practice - a systematic review of empirical studies. BMC Medicine, 8(1), 15. DOI: 10.1186/1741-7015-8-15
Kermen R, Hickner J, Brody H, & Hasham I. (2010) Family physicians believe the placebo effect is therapeutic but often use real drugs as placebos. Family medicine, 42(9), 636-42. PMID: 20927672
Raz A, Campbell N, Guindi D, Holcroft C, Déry C, & Cukier O. (2011) Placebos in clinical practice: comparing attitudes, beliefs, and patterns of use between academic psychiatrists and nonpsychiatrists. Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 56(4), 198-208. PMID: 21507276
- April 28, 2011
- 10:00 PM
- 1,086 views
Do Calcium Supplements Cause Heart Attacks?
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Calcium is good for us, right? Milk products are great sources of calcium, and we’re told to emphasize milk products in our diets. Don’t (or can’t) eat enough dairy? Calcium supplements are very popular, especially among women seeking to minimize their risk of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis prevention and treatment guidelines recommend calcium and vitamin D as [...]... Read more »
Bolland MJ, Avenell A, Baron JA, Grey A, MacLennan GS, Gamble GD, & Reid IR. (2010) Effect of calcium supplements on risk of myocardial infarction and cardiovascular events: meta-analysis. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). PMID: 20671013
Bolland, M., Grey, A., Avenell, A., Gamble, G., & Reid, I. (2011) Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women's Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis. BMJ, 342(apr19 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d2040
- March 3, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 1,052 views
Topical NSAIDs
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
I have a mental basket of drugs that I suspect may be placebos. In that basket were the topical versions of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). When the first products were commercially marketed over a decade ago, I found the clinical evidence unconvincing, and I suspected that the modestly positive effects were probably due to simply [...]... Read more »
Haroutiunian, S., Drennan, D., & Lipman, A. (2010) Topical NSAID Therapy for Musculoskeletal Pain. Pain Medicine, 11(4), 535-549. DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2010.00809.x
Trelle S, Reichenbach S, Wandel S, Hildebrand P, Tschannen B, Villiger PM, Egger M, & Jüni P. (2011) Cardiovascular safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: network meta-analysis. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). PMID: 21224324
- February 17, 2011
- 09:00 AM
- 1,204 views
Are you sure you’re allergic to penicillin?
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
As a pharmacist, when I dispense medication, it’s my responsibility to ensure that the medication is safe and appropriate for the patient. There are numerous checks we go through including verifying the dose, ensuring there are no interactions with other drugs, and verifying the patient has no history of allergy to the product prescribed. Asking [...]... Read more »
Caubet JC, Kaiser L, Lemaître B, Fellay B, Gervaix A, & Eigenmann PA. (2011) The role of penicillin in benign skin rashes in childhood: a prospective study based on drug rechallenge. The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 127(1), 218-22. PMID: 21035175
- January 31, 2011
- 11:59 PM
- 709 views
Celebrating Two Years of SBP
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Science-Based Pharmacy hits its second birthday today. Two years ago it started with this post on homeopathy, which I recognized as the most ludicrous “health” product I’d ever seen sold in a pharmacy, and one I felt seriously compromised the credibility of the pharmacy profession. That assessment still stands. After two years, homeopathy remains as [...]... Read more »
Clauson KA, Ekins J, & Goncz CE. (2010) Use of blogs by pharmacists. American journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, 67(23), 2043-8. PMID: 21098377
- January 20, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 773 views
The risks of CAM: How much do we know?
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Working in pharmacies where supplements are sold alongside traditional (over-the-counter) medications, I’m regularly astonished at the different perceptions consumers can have about the relative efficacy and safety of different types of products. Once, speaking with a customer about a medical condition she wanted to treat, I indicated that there were no effective non-prescription therapies — [...]... Read more »
Lim A, Cranswick N, & South M. (2010) Adverse events associated with the use of complementary and alternative medicine in children. Archives of disease in childhood. PMID: 21178176
Walji, R., Boon, H., Barnes, J., Austin, Z., Welsh, S., & Baker, G. (2010) Consumers of natural health products: natural-born pharmacovigilantes?. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 10(1), 8. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-10-8
- January 6, 2011
- 08:00 AM
- 900 views
Energy Drinks
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
My stimulant of choice is coffee. I started drinking it in first-year university, and never looked back. A tiny four-cup coffee maker became my reliable companion right through graduate school. But since I stopped needing to drink a pot at a time, an entirely new category of products has appeared — the energy drink. Targeting [...]... Read more »
Heckman, M., Sherry, K., & De Mejia, E. (2010) Energy Drinks: An Assessment of Their Market Size, Consumer Demographics, Ingredient Profile, Functionality, and Regulations in the United States. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 9(3), 303-317. DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-4337.2010.00111.x
Clauson, K., Shields, K., McQueen, C., & Persad, N. (2008) Safety issues associated with commercially available energy drinks. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 48(3). DOI: 10.1331/JAPhA.2008.07055
- December 28, 2010
- 07:00 AM
- 873 views
Echinacea for Colds and the Flu
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Colds and the flu (influenza) are among the most frequent and universal illnesses we all experience. Yet we don’t have any truly effective treatments for them. Sure, there are plenty of products available to treat the symptoms. And there are vaccines and some prescription treatments for influenza, which have modest effects. But it would be nice if there was something that reliably [...]... Read more »
Barrett B, Brown R, Rakel D, Mundt M, Bone K, Barlow S, & Ewers T. (2010) Echinacea for treating the common cold: a randomized trial. Annals of internal medicine, 153(12), 769-77. PMID: 21173411
- December 23, 2010
- 06:00 AM
- 962 views
Vaccines are a pain: What to do about it
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
As much as I support vaccines, I see the short term consequences. Vaccines can be painful. Kids don’t like them, and parents don’t like seeing their children suffer. That this transient pain is the most common consequence of gaining protection from fatal illnesses seems like a fair trade-off to me. But that’s not the case [...]... Read more »
Taddio A, Appleton M, Bortolussi R, Chambers C, Dubey V, Halperin S, Hanrahan A, Ipp M, Lockett D, Macdonald N.... (2010) Reducing the pain of childhood vaccination: an evidence-based clinical practice guideline (summary). CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal , 182(18), 1989-95. PMID: 21098067
- December 9, 2010
- 07:30 AM
- 867 views
Good Idea, Bad Execution: Dosing Errors, A Preventable Harm
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Crossposted at Science-Based Medicine, today’s post expands on a prior SBP post. Our desire to practice in a science-based way can face many hurdles, and can even be thwarted at the last possible moment – in the form of dosing errors. The workup may have been comprehensive, the diagnosis could be correct, the most clinically [...]... Read more »
Yin HS, Mendelsohn AL, Wolf MS, Parker RM, Fierman A, van Schaick L, Bazan IS, Kline MD, & Dreyer BP. (2010) Parents' medication administration errors: role of dosing instruments and health literacy. Archives of pediatrics , 164(2), 181-6. PMID: 20124148
Yin HS, Wolf MS, Dreyer BP, Sanders LM, & Parker RM. (2010) Evaluation of Consistency in Dosing Directions and Measuring Devices for Pediatric Nonprescription Liquid Medications. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association. PMID: 21119074
- September 20, 2010
- 09:00 AM
- 948 views
Neuragen for Nerve Pain
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Today’s post is from SBP contributor Avicenna. Here’s his bio and his prior posts. An estimated 2 to 3% of the developed world - roughly 1 million Canadians and 10 million Americans - suffer from a debilitating form of chronic pain, called neuropathic pain (NP) or neuralgia.(1,2) What’s worse is that these numbers are expected [...]... Read more »
Li, L. (2010) The effect of Neuragen PN® on Neuropathic pain: A randomized, double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 10(1), 22. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-10-22
- August 9, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,021 views
The (Lice) Drugs Don’t Work … Or Do They?
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
For those of us in the northern hemisphere, summer is drawing to an end and that means back to school – and the annual wave of panic about head lice. It seems that cramming hundreds of children together in one building leads to lice outbreaks, panicky teachers, and distraught parents. Right on schedule, in last [...]... Read more »
Frankowski, B., & Bocchini, J. (2010) Head Lice. PEDIATRICS, 126(2), 392-403. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2010-1308
- July 8, 2010
- 09:40 PM
- 847 views
Sunscreen in a Pill?
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
I’ve previously described the consequences of acute and chronic sun exposure, and the rationale for topical sunscreen products. But wouldn’t it be easier to just take a pill that can boost our skin’s resistance to to the harmful effects of the sun? Is it possible to get all the benefits of sunscreen without the bother [...]... Read more »
Villa, A., Viera, M., Amini, S., Huo, R., Perez, O., Ruiz, P., Amador, A., Elgart, G., & Berman, B. (2010) Decrease of ultraviolet A light–induced “common deletion” in healthy volunteers after oral Polypodium leucotomos extract supplement in a randomized clinical trial. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 62(3), 511-513. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaad.2009.05.045
Middelkamp-Hup MA, Pathak MA, Parrado C, Goukassian D, Rius-Díaz F, Mihm MC, Fitzpatrick TB, & González S. (2004) Oral Polypodium leucotomos extract decreases ultraviolet-induced damage of human skin. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 51(6), 910-8. PMID: 15583582
Middelkamp-Hup MA, Pathak MA, Parrado C, Garcia-Caballero T, Rius-Díaz F, Fitzpatrick TB, & González S. (2004) Orally administered Polypodium leucotomos extract decreases psoralen-UVA-induced phototoxicity, pigmentation, and damage of human skin. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 50(1), 41-9. PMID: 14699363
González S, Pathak MA, Cuevas J, Villarrubia VG, & Fitzpatrick TB. (1997) Topical or oral administration with an extract of Polypodium leucotomos prevents acute sunburn and psoralen-induced phototoxic reactions as well as depletion of Langerhans cells in human skin. Photodermatology, Photoimmunology , 13(1-2), 50-60. PMID: 9361129
- June 21, 2010
- 08:15 AM
- 928 views
The Science of Dosing Errors
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
With the warnings this week in Canada and the United States about the risks of dosing errors with vitamin D drops, I thought it was an appropriate time to discuss dose measurement as barrier to science-based care. Dosing errors are the among the most common and most preventable causes of adverse drug events in children. [...]... Read more »
Yin HS, Mendelsohn AL, Wolf MS, Parker RM, Fierman A, van Schaick L, Bazan IS, Kline MD, & Dreyer BP. (2010) Parents' medication administration errors: role of dosing instruments and health literacy. Archives of pediatrics , 164(2), 181-6. PMID: 20124148
- April 8, 2010
- 09:10 PM
- 987 views
Chili Burn: Can Green Tea and Chili Pepper Burn Fat?
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Diet products are common in most pharmacies. Consumer demand is one factor, with obesity proliferating to the point where the majority of Canadian adults are now overweight or obese. Compounded with the reality that there are no easy solutions when it comes to weight loss, the weight loss industry is working overtime developing new products. [...]... Read more »
Phung, O., Baker, W., Matthews, L., Lanosa, M., Thorne, A., & Coleman, C. (2009) Effect of green tea catechins with or without caffeine on anthropometric measures: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(1), 73-81. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28157
- March 22, 2010
- 08:30 AM
- 895 views
Responding to Anti-vaccine Misinformation: Understanding the Issues
by Scott in Science-Based Pharmacy
Pharmacists pride themselves as being the most accessible health professionals. In community pharmacy settings, pharmacists speak with hundred of patients per day, and are available (free, and without an appointment) for quick consultations. Building good relationships is a rewarding part of being a pharmacist, and the level of trust that can develop supports open dialogue [...]... Read more »
Kata, A. (2010) A postmodern Pandora's box: Anti-vaccination misinformation on the Internet. Vaccine, 28(7), 1709-1716. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2009.12.022
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